Coral ID Please

[bms]

well i posted a pic or two a few weeks to a month ago of this coral that i have no idea what it is. i got many responses saying it was a blastomussa of some sort however it does not look the same. this coral seems to have a calcareous skeleton with a blastomussa looking top that is about as thin as a mushroom yet completely shrinks at nighttime and extends as soon as the lights come on. And NO it is NOT a CANDY CANE CORAL. here are a few pics:

 

[btldreef]

Blastomussa Merletti

 

[atrain5851]

agree blastomussa merletti they form exactly how you described smaller polyps than the normal blastos and have a long thin calcareous skeleton

 

[bms]

ah thank you. i looked up pictures on google and that is the closet looking blastumossa i have seen to what i have. i still havent seen any pictures that show the type of growth mine has, everything else looks like a round spherical growing coral like a brain coral or something that doesnt have these long stalks. im guessing the frag i have was cut from a colony that filled out a rock and just a portion was cut from it. will it form into a large colony or will the tops just grow bigger?

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by bms
http:///forum/post/3212426
ah thank you. i looked up pictures on google and that is the closet looking blastumossa i have seen to what i have. i still havent seen any pictures that show the type of growth mine has, everything else looks like a round spherical growing coral like a brain coral or something that doesnt have these long stalks. im guessing the frag i have was cut from a colony that filled out a rock and just a portion was cut from it. will it form into a large colony or will the tops just grow bigger?
It's definitely a frag from a larger colony, but I'm 100% positive it's blastomussa merletti.
They grow in stalks exactly how yours is, most people find the stalk ugly and hide it in the rock work, so you won't see it in most pictures. It will eventually grow into a larger colony, but they're very slow growers.